Northern India limps back to normal after power outage

New Delhi, March 7 (IANS) Following a six-hour power outage in India’s capital and surrounding areas of northern India early Friday, it took another six hours for electricity supply to be restored for trains to get back on schedule. A spokesman for the Northern Regional Load Dispatch Centre (NRLDC) of the Power Grid Corporation said 50 lines of 400 kv in Delhi, western Uttar Pradesh and Haryana tripped at about 3 a.m. The system was restored at about 9 a.m., he added.

The engineers were suspecting the snag was due to heavy fog that had got the high-tension wires wet.

Rajeev Saxena, chief public relations officer of Northern Railways said 25 trains had been delayed in a big way, including Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains between the capital and various cities. However, trains from New Delhi, Nizamuddin and Delhi stations that were scheduled for the afternoon and evening would leave as per schedule.

“The problem began at 2 a.m. with intermittent power failure being reported from the northern grid. The situation worsened by 6.30 a.m. Most of the Delhi bound Rajdhani trains were delayed by several hours. Although the Shatabdi trains left Delhi on time, many were stuck en route,” Saxena told IANS.

“The power supply was fully restored by 9 a.m. The afternoon and evening trains will leave for their destinations as per schedule. Passengers are, however, advised to check the departure times of trains before heading for the station,” he added.

As many as 400 trains, including local shuttles, depart from and arrive at the capital’s major stations, ferrying around 800,000 passengers every day. Saxena said the power outage did not affect the local trains.

Rishi Raj, spokesman of the Delhi Transco limited, said: “East and west parts of Delhi faced blackouts when the northern power grid problem began. North and south Delhi also faced intermittent electricity outages but were not badly affected.

“Power was initially restored at 9 a.m. but some lines tripped again and the situation was completely normalised by 10 a.m.”

Sutanshu Agarwal, deputy general manager of power transmission in Ghaziabad, said Uttar Pradesh towns falling in the national capital region - Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad - were badly affected by the power outage.

The electricity lines might have tripped due to dense fog, he added.

National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) officials said they had been forced to halt operations for a while at two plants in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.

“Due to the grid problem, the NTPC’s plants at Dadri (Uttar Pradesh) and Faridabad (Haryana) stopped working for a short while but have now resumed operation,” NTPC spokesman T.S. Rajput told IANS.